dialogue #07 ‘interpreting representation’

‘Bannerism’

– or how to use pursuasion in the public space. To promote images that seem to depict a better reality or world than real life, mostly done on all kinds of materials, on objects or buildings. As I choose my own moments and cropping in photography, I create a subjective approach on image making. The same tools are used in promoting architectural projects: when a soon to be build housing estate or a public building is announced trough a billboard or a wooden wall around the construction site. We see images of an almost utopian atmosphere where the renderings of the finished project look ‘totally awesome’. The end result can only disappoint.

Housing cooperative

Construction site of a new housing cooperative in Zürich, Switzerland. A rather abstract way of communicating what is to come by a young Swiss architectural company – even hard to understand for architects. There is a shortage of affordable housing in Zürich and it might take years being on a waiting list to become a member of a housing cooperative. Most apartments of planned housing cooperatives are allocated to old and new members of the cooperative in early stages of the planning process, so there is no need for attractive renderings as a marketing strategy. At the same time it reflects the housing cooperative’s general focus on typologies rather than on architectural expression.